Come along and see the Surface range on May 8th in central london

HardSoft and Microsoft invite our existing customers to come along to the ME Hotel London, for an introduction the Microsoft Surface devices including the new Surface Hub.

Surface Hub- come along to the ME Hotel, London

As approved Microsoft resellers, we are attending a specialist training event at the ME hotel London on Tuesday 8th May 2018 between 4 and 6pm. Each of our Account Managers are able to invite 2 of their customers to come along after the training event where they will then be able to experience a unique opportunity to get up close to the Surface Hub. HardSoft have only just taken this product on and we need to understand if its going to work for our customers.

The Surface Hub conference room computer offers a smart mix of video conferencing, digital white-boarding, and collaborative working, running on a custom version of Windows 10, in either a 55-inch or 84-inch versions. You can walk up to the display and join a Skype for Business meeting with a simple tap, and share content easily. The Surface Hub isn’t designed to be a personal device, there is no need to log into it like you would a PC. The idea is that none of the data is stored on the device. After a session, the whiteboard notes must be emailed to the participants or shared to OneNote. Naturally the Surface Hub is available to lease on 3 and 4 year terms.

The Surface Hub isn’t the only product that will be available for you to look at. There will be other Surface devices as well as other products available as part of the showcase for you to see, touch, and try out. So come along and join us. The Surface Pro is currently available when you lease with a free Type Cover. If you lease the Surface Book 2 then both the 13″ and 15″ come with a free USB-C traveling dock. Gives you a lot more expansion than the limited USB-C.

Voice technology is everywhere! Pretty soon it will be an unavoidable phenomenon, not just an app you never use.

Voice technology is continuing to change the way we communicate in all aspects of our everyday lives.

And, in recent years, an increasing number of high profile brands, including Microsoft and Apple, have recognised the many benefits that come hand in hand with voice technology. In fact, more people than ever before are embracing voice assistant devices at home and at work, increasing the worldwide demand for technology that can recognise human speech.

Firstly, what is voice technology?

From the Apple HomePod and Google Home through to the Amazon Echo, brands have been quick to respond to consumer demand for voice assistants, which have been designed to integrate seamlessly into our everyday lives, ultimately changing consumer behaviour.

If you own the latest smartphone or tablet, it’s very likely that voice recognition technology will already be on your radar, and it’s likely you will have already used it, in some shape or form. Whether you’re asking Cortana where the buy the best Flat White, ordering a birthday present from Alexa or asking Siri for the latest Twitter trends voice technology is here, and growing fast.

Voice technology is a piece of computer software developed to decode the human voice. whether it’s Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri or Microsoft’s Cortana they all work on the same principle; listen, quantify and interpret. Once they have heard what you have said, your voice is translated into text which is in turn input as a command on your device. With this in mind, an increasing number of brands are now using it to allow consumers to actually operate their devices, respond to commands, and in some cases, write and translate messages. Think of voice technology as a vocal keyboard and mouse, but instead of typing in your questions/commands you’re saying them!

1. Where in the future are we going to find voice technology?

2017 saw an explosion of growth in voice recognition technology, and many conversational devices are now commonplace in homes and offices around the world, with a diverse range of sectors embracing this ground-breaking revolution. If you, like me, remember the early days of voice commands they were clunky, incoherent and often wouldn’t get what you said right. But user-experience got better and following product releases like; The Amazon Echo and Apple’s IOS 10/11 featuring Siri we finally got to a point where they became worth using!

Voice technology has already proved to be extremely popular in a vast range of products, including smartphones, tablets and voice assistants. The main benefit of voice technology is that it’s entirely handsfree, so naturally, voice technology has been incorporated into products such as cars, furniture and even in the workplace, this allows full device functionality even when your hands are busy.

However, many industry experts have stated that in order for voice technology to remain at the forefront of advances in tech, it’s vital that it is able to complement and enhance other emerging technologies. With this in mind, it will be the job of big names such as Apple, Amazon and Microsoft to ensure that they continue to create compelling, accurate and enjoyable user experiences with voice recognition technology that is in line and able to integrate with future innovations.

2. Creating bespoke experiences

Although many voice assistants already offer individualised experiences, it is predicted that they will become even better at differentiating between voices, with the ability to recognise and detect unique user voices. For example, customised voice detection suddenly allows users to obtain information that is unique to them! Their calendar, interests and individual needs/wants.

We can see the consumer need for a more automated, easier user experience, recently released specialised, secure login software like Windows Hello and Apple ID have proven severely popular. Imagine if logging into your device could be done securely, handsfree and by just using your voice.

3. Voice notifications

Voice notifications are coming! And will be used to advise users about new content and features, in order to both encourage you to continue using your device and also following improvements to voice technology create a dialogue between device and user. Being able to dictate commands through conversation with your device rather than having to input anything manually.

This is especially convenient during times where you can’t input commands traditionally via a keyboard like when you’re driving, for example:

‘Hi Oliver it’s Cortana, it’s 12:45 pm and you have an appointment with Daniel scheduled for 1 pm at the office, with current traffic your ETA is 1:15 pm, say yes if you would you like me to inform him of your new arrival time?’

Voice technology has helpful and fantastic real-world applications, the mobility in how you can deploy voice technology is what makes it relevant, the only barrier to it, ultimately, is accuracy.

4. Assess your mood

As voice technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, there are now a number of new devices set to become attuned to not just your voice, but also your emotions! Known as emotion recognition, this ground-breaking innovation assesses your daily mood by using the tone of your voice. At a very basic level being able to accurately gauge your emotions means your interaction with the voice technology you use has another variable. If you’re having a bad day then you could set the software not to bother you etc…

The digital landscape is advancing all the time, with new technology continuously pushing boundaries and taking us to new places on a daily basis.

However, one thing’s for sure, the future certainly looks bright for voice recognition technology! Watch this space!

To find out more about the latest home technology available to lease with HardSoft, get in touch by clicking the link or call on 0207 1111 643 – our skilled and experienced team is always happy to help and can offer great advice on whats available!

Here to Save the Day

Our technical support team are like Marvel’s Avengers. They’re a super-skilled, highly trained, slightly geeky and dysfunctional group of tech superheroes, who we call on whenever our customers are in trouble and need a helping hand. But don’t worry, they all wear their pants on the inside!

When you lease your Mac or PC from HardSoft with a HardSoft Flexi-Lease, you also get the benefit of three years warranty and support from our technical support team. The tech team are available for visits to help you with installation, training and support whenever you need help. We pride ourselves on our technical team’s knowledge and ability to fight most challenges like a superhero. They are able to do this because we make sure that they have the latest, and most up to date, training. This helps them to overcome the issues that they encounter quickly and effectively for our customers.

If your technical issue doesn’t need a visit from a Caped Crusader, you can also find help and support via our Support page. It has lots of interesting and helpful articles written by our tech heroes, covering a wide range of topics with the most common issues encountered by our customers.

This is an incredibly useful tool and a great first point of call for customers who want to investigate a little before they pick up the phone and call. If you still need a hero to come and save the day, just call the teamon 020 7111 1643 or use our online webchat, and they’ll send the next Avenger out to defeat the bad guys and put the world to rights once more.

The Surface range managed to manifest something that Microsoft had previously failed to produce for years. It added a brand which offered a suite of mid to high spec PC alternatives capable of doing battle with Apple for their, until now, relatively uncontested portion of the professional Laptop/Tablet market.

Following Microsoft’s release of the new 15” Surface Book 2 and a reboot of the Surface Pro the biggest member of the Surface family has ironically managed to go relatively undetected; The Surface Hub. The Surface’s unique architecture and customisable spec made it a popular draw for personal consumers, but the Hub is fighting for an entirely different market.

Designed solely for business, to ‘unlock the power of the group’ whilst streamlining, optimising and often solving a whole host of necessary office collaboration processes that are often tiresome and difficult to manage: Conference calls, team projects, presentations etc… Microsoft has entered their gigantic champion into an otherwise uncontested arena, but is this a battle actually worth fighting?

The claim by Microsoft is that the Hub will allow and encourage seamless and integrated office ‘Collaboration’. Targeted at an office environment and not at the ‘personal user’ market means that this machine HAS to earn its keep. The Hub isn’t essential and if it doesn’t make financial sense to procure then why would any business have it?

What is a Microsoft Surface Hub?

The Microsoft Surface Hub is a goliath machine. Available with either a 55” FullHD or 84” 4K Multi-touch screen, mounted on a rolling platform or mounted on a wall this is a display of epic proportions. It supports a multitude of screen-sharing and presentation methods and you can connect other devices via integrated DVI, HDMI or VGA ports or wirelessly share your screen with Windows compatible apps, like Miracast.

With its Multi-touch screen supporting up to 100 points of simultaneous touch multiple users isn’t a problem but is instead encouraged! Having multiple people collaborating on the same project or presenting as a team is catered for by the Hub. Supplied with 2 surface pens ensures that apps like OneNote are ready to perform straight out of the box.

The Surface Hub being an interactive conference setup certainly is its main draw. You won’t be lacking canvas space whilst you work on the Surface Hub and the high quality of the display ensures that any presentation is clear and sleek helping maintain audience engagement and make your presentation, whatever the context, seamless and responsive.

Equipped with 2 integrated 1080p cameras which track and adjust their focus in response to movement across the Hub. 4 microphones capable of detecting a whisper at 23 feet give you no excuse for your respondents to not hear you during a conference call. Once it’s setup in your office space, organising any out of office meeting is easy and so is every conference you will ever organise again. It effectively eliminates setup time and allows for presentations or multimedia to already be loaded seamlessly via a network solution or appropriate input device straight onto the screen, if nothing else it certainly is tidy.

Value for Money?

With teamwork in mind, the Surface Hub focuses on time-saving and increased office collaboration as its main points of sale, these are what Microsoft is marketing as the reason a company would benefit from this product. It appears that they aren’t wrong…

An independent research organisation, Forrester, carried out a study on the Total Economic Impact (TEI) of business’ deploying the Surface Hub in their organisation, but perhaps, more importantly, an objective look at the Return on Investment (ROI) they received. Forrester detailed in their report that one architectural firm (over 3 years): Minimised their printing costs, saved time on meetings, increased sales by 20% and got an estimated total 138% ROI after the first three years of Surface Hub integration.

The Surface Hub brings to bear a whole host of interesting and certainly collaborative features. I think that the Hub fulfils its intended purpose and is a cool addition to the Surface Range and for office-based technology in general. Its price tag is high, but the benefits of owning one, objectively, are too.

HardSoft and Microsoft invite our existing customers to come along to the ME Hotel London, for an introduction the Microsoft Surface devices including the new Surface Hub.

Surface Hub- come along to the ME Hotel, London

As approved Microsoft resellers, we are attending a specialist training event at the ME hotel London on Tuesday 8th May 2018 between 4 and 6pm. Each of our Account Managers are able to invite 2 of their customers to come along after the training event where they will then be able to experience a unique opportunity to get up close to the Surface Hub. HardSoft have only just taken this product on and we need to understand if its going to work for our customers.

The Surface Hub conference room computer offers a smart mix of video conferencing, digital white-boarding, and collaborative working, running on a custom version of Windows 10, in either a 55-inch or 84-inch versions. You can walk up to the display and join a Skype for Business meeting with a simple tap, and share content easily. The Surface Hub isn’t designed to be a personal device, there is no need to log into it like you would a PC. The idea is that none of the data is stored on the device. After a session, the whiteboard notes must be emailed to the participants or shared to OneNote. Naturally the Surface Hub is available to lease on 3 and 4 year terms.

The Surface Hub isn’t the only product that will be available for you to look at. There will be other Surface devices as well as other products available as part of the showcase for you to see, touch, and try out. So come along and join us. The Surface Pro is currently available when you lease with a free Type Cover. If you lease the Surface Book 2 then both the 13″ and 15″ come with a free USB-C traveling dock. Gives you a lot more expansion than the limited USB-C.